A food and nutrition blog authored by the altruistic Alisha and the effervescent Emma: two nutrition-centric superbrains determined to explore and explain today's tidal wave of nutritional science, myths, and trends. (...and we can cook, too)

Friday, 12 December 2014

I must confess, I am obsessed with pumpkin. Pumpkin
flavoured things, pumpkin scented things, really all things pumpkin. Now that
Thanksgiving and Halloween are over, I’m noticing the pumpkin craze is slowly
disappearing, and this makes me sad. In attempt to keep pumpkin in my life I
made these pumpkin blossoms* (mine were nowhere as nice as the photo below, just in case you were wondering...).

Now I am not saying that these are not good, they are in
fact delicious, but I honestly feel better about eating treats when they are
providing my body with some kind of good-for-you nutrients. So I decided that I
would take Emma’s advice (from her last post) and substitute the butter with
avocado. And then I thought that while I was at it, I may as well substitute the white
flour for whole wheat … and then I may have gotten a little carried away and
developed my own pumpkin blossom recipe! So here it is with a nutrient analysis and everything!

Alisha's Healthier Pumpkin Blossoms

Ingredient List

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 medium avocado, mashed

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 large egg

pinch of salt

1/2 cup rolled quick oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp ground flax seed

I followed the exact same instructions from the original recipe except I placed the chocolate chips on the top before cooking.

Overall, my version of the pumpkin blossoms have less fat, calories and sugar, and more fiber than the original. The avocado and ground flax seed also provides you with beneficial fats and other important nutrients!

And for those of you who want to look at (and possibly compare) the nutrition information, I have posted it below.